On the morning of May 18, the Ho Chi Minh City Academy of Officials coordinated with the Standing Office of the Communist Magazine in the South to organize a scientific workshop on piloting new outstanding mechanisms and policies in Ho Chi Minh City.
In his report to introduce the workshop, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine, said that after more than 10 years of implementing Resolution No. 16, Ho Chi Minh City continues to be the driving force and locomotive leading the development of the Southern key economic region and the whole country, and is an important gateway connecting with the region and the world.
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| Conference scene |
However, in addition to the achievements, the development of Ho Chi Minh City still has many problems to overcome. The city's economic growth has slowed down compared to the previous period, the average income per capita target has not been met, the urban infrastructure system still has many shortcomings; traffic congestion, flooding, and environmental pollution are slow to improve... This scientific conference aims to gather scientific arguments on building and piloting new, outstanding mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City, providing directions for building and piloting new, outstanding mechanisms and policies to ensure effectiveness.
From the suggestion of Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, the delegates focused on discussing and clarifying the theory of outstanding mechanisms and policies; piloting outstanding mechanisms and policies; discussing the urgency of building and piloting outstanding mechanisms and policies, taking the lead in building the organizational apparatus, staff, civil servants, and socio-economic development of the City, as a basis for researching and perfecting common development mechanisms and policies across the country. At the same time, proposing mechanisms to research and detect socio-economic issues that require new, outstanding mechanisms and policies.
5 goals when proposing specific mechanisms and policies
Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Tho Quang, Director of the Department, Head of the Communist Magazine's Standing Office in the Central Highlands, said that it is necessary for Ho Chi Minh City to propose specific and outstanding policies to proactively respond to changes in a timely manner.
This expert also said that Ho Chi Minh City needs to set out 5 goals to aim for when proposing specific mechanisms and policies. That is, having solutions to improve production capacity, making Ho Chi Minh City a major production center of the country and the region.
“Currently, foreign enterprises are still looking for safe development spaces and Ho Chi Minh City is one of the places that enterprises are eyeing. To anticipate the production shift of enterprises, Ho Chi Minh City urgently needs to have a mechanism to create an open investment environment and offer appropriate incentive policies to attract enterprises,” Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Tho Quang emphasized.
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| Delegates give opinions on the new resolution replacing Resolution 54 |
Second, Ho Chi Minh City aims to become a center of science, technology, and international finance. Therefore, the city must carefully research and evaluate current traditional financial centers such as Singapore, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, etc. to determine their position and orient specific policies for competitive development. Not only must there be policies to attract, but policies must also be put in place to retain businesses and corporations that have production facilities in Vietnam.
Expert Tran Quang Tho said that the establishment of Thu Duc City by Ho Chi Minh City is meant to promote it to become a major financial center. Therefore, it is necessary to create a reasonable and worthy development model for Thu Duc City to achieve this goal.
Regarding infrastructure investment, in recent times, Ho Chi Minh City has made efforts to promote many projects, but overall, the infrastructure of Ho Chi Minh City is still in disarray. The main traffic axes have not yet taken shape, and important wharves and yards have not been properly invested. Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Tho Quang said that there needs to be a new way of thinking in promoting traffic infrastructure. For example, investing in seaports requires a huge amount of resources, and with the old way of doing things, it is difficult to achieve the goal. There needs to be a specific policy to mobilize the maximum social resources to participate in the implementation.
In addition, Ho Chi Minh City is the leading unit in the urban government pilot but when implementing it still faces many limitations such as merging administrative units and arranging staff. Therefore, it is necessary to provide Ho Chi Minh City with mechanisms for the city to carry out its development mission worthy of its potential, to contribute more to the whole country.
Must overcome "conflict" of responsibility
Dr. Bui Ngoc Hien, Ho Chi Minh City Academy of Officials, said that it is necessary to emphasize the leading role of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City for the whole country and the whole country for Ho Chi Minh City. According to Dr. Bui Ngoc Hien, recently, the decline in GRDP growth rate of Ho Chi Minh City has greatly affected the overall growth of the whole country. Therefore, Ho Chi Minh City must develop for the whole country and vice versa, localities also need to support to develop together with Ho Chi Minh City. Not only that, Ho Chi Minh City's request for specific policy mechanisms is also a pilot of the general growth models of the whole country, bringing valuable experience to localities in implementing development policies.
Ho Chi Minh City should apply some models that other countries have successfully implemented before, which is the sandbox model. Accordingly, with this model, Ho Chi Minh City should create a separate legal policy framework outside or beyond the current legal framework for innovation, only then can it attract businesses to invest.
In addition, Ho Chi Minh City must increase its forecasting ability when proposing policies when the domestic and international situation is always changing. Therefore, the resolution must create "openness" and increase initiative in piloting policies so that Ho Chi Minh City can promptly propose solutions to overcome difficulties that reality presents.
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Dr. Bui Ngoc Hien, Ho Chi Minh City Academy of Officials, presented a paper at the workshop. |
According to Dr. Bui Ngoc Hien, drawing on experience from the implementation of Resolution 54, the new resolution must ensure feasibility when implemented. In particular, the new resolution must overcome the "conflict" of responsibility between Ho Chi Minh City and ministries and branches when implementing policies. In particular, the resolution must identify the responsibilities of relevant parties, especially the responsibilities of Ho Chi Minh City, and abolish cumbersome procedures so that policies can be implemented quickly and effectively. If this is not overcome, the limitations of Resolution 54 will return, possibly more seriously.
Regarding this content, Dr. Nguyen Huu Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City Urban Development Planning Association, also said that it is very important to recognize the limitations when implementing Resolution 54 to gain experience in implementing the new resolution. Recognizing that Resolution 54 plays a very important role in helping Ho Chi Minh City overcome the Covid-19 pandemic, many policies have not achieved the expected results. One of the reasons given is the lack of coordination between Ho Chi Minh City and departments and branches because the mechanisms and policies are still entangled and overlapping. This must be identified as a bottleneck to be resolved.
In the replacement resolution, in addition to proposing specific policy mechanisms, solutions must be provided to eliminate cumbersome procedures when implementing policies. Should Ho Chi Minh City also propose a mechanism to ask for opinions from ministries and branches? When Ho Chi Minh City proposes an issue to the central ministries and branches, how long will it take to respond? If after this time, the central government does not respond, Ho Chi Minh City has the right to implement the proposed policies on a self-responsible basis.
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Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tan Phat, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Academy of Officials delivered a concluding speech at the conference. |
In his concluding remarks at the workshop, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tan Phat affirmed the necessity and urgency of new, outstanding mechanisms and policies for the sustainable development of Ho Chi Minh City in the new development context, so that the City can effectively promote all potentials and advantages. Along with that, the City can take the lead and exploit opportunities to develop strongly, maintain its leading role, the spreading center, and create new momentum in the socio-economic development of the Southern region and the whole country.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine:
A different approach is needed.
The new policy mechanism must reflect the new thinking of the Party, reflect the new development philosophy of the Government and the country, and assign that mission to a locality as the center, a place with a good foundation that will have to implement the mechanism of the whole country.
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Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine |
So, we must approach this so that it is a national story, not just a story of Ho Chi Minh City. When new policies and mechanisms are approved, with the tradition of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and what is already there, the city is certainly ready to have new, outstanding policies and mechanisms to assign to the city's sectors and localities.
Besides, with the new policy mechanisms being passed, Ho Chi Minh City must form its own mechanism to suit its development. Avoid the situation where the shirt gets too tight and you have to ask for a new, bigger shirt.
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